II - The High Priestess

Laura lived with her father. She helped him around the farm and fed the brahmin. They had enough food and water for the both of them, and frequently visited Westside and met up with some of his father's friends. When she grew up she also started cooking to give more time for her father to rest. He also taught her to shoot. Near her 17th birthday she got a revolver from her father which she promised to keep and to use it only when her life was threatened. Sadly, that time came too quickly.

The Fiends didn't normally come so far from Vault 3, but a small group of them had gotten high on chems. In that one night, when Laura and her father had to protect themselves and their farm, the Fiends killed their brahmin, destroyed half of the crops and blew up a part of the house. Even thought Laura and her father killed a number of them and scared the rest of them off, the Fiends had done too much damage. Laura's father had to get a loan.

The only person who would give a loan to them was Danielle "The Demonic Angel". The wild card of Vegas. If your outside of her group, you might see her picking up homeless and giving them a job. An angel of good will. But if you're on the inside, you'll see the "jobs" that she gives to them. The men are put to work at an old factory. Making highly addictive drugs, attempting to fix pre-war technology, you name it. The women aren't so lucky. They are put to work at Danielle's brothel. This is where Danielle gets her nickname.

When it came to loans, Danielle wasn't very generous. With a one-and-a-half thousand cap loan with a
100 % interest. As her father discussed the deal with Danielle, Laura hid behind him. "A 100% interest? Do you know what I do for a living?" "No, and I don't really care. But if you want the caps you have to agree to the terms." Laura's father took a look at his daughter, and turned back to the woman. "Fine. I'll accept the terms." Danielle had a slight, devilish smile on her face as the two left the building with the caps.

- A few months later -

Danielle had come to collect the monthly caps with a couple of goons. Nothing out of the ordinary, she usually had them just to quickly check the caps. Laura stood in the doorway of their house as her father walked to the man and handed him the caps. He did a quick count and walked to Danielle and whispered something to her. "Fakes? Oh well, we can't have that." She walked towards Laura's father and the goons grabbed him by the arms. You thought you could pay your debt with counterfeits?" "What! I got the money from-" Danielle pulled out her pistol and aimed at his head. "Quiet! It's time I show you what we do to people who try to deceive us." Laura, who stood in the doorway screamed. "NO!" Her father turned to look at his daughter as Danielle shot. His movement made the bullet hit his shoulder instead."No! Dad!" Laura began running towards her father, but stopped when Danielle shot in front of her. "You better stay back, if you don't want your father missing a daughter." Her father turned to her. "Laura, stay back." Danielle lowered to the fallen man with a slight smile. "I just missed your heart." Then she nodded to the goons and they dragged him away. "You'll work for me to repay your debt. Then I might let you go." Laura couldn't bear to watch her father being dragged. "Wait!" Danielle turned to her. "Oh yes, I almost forgot about you. Do you want your father back?" Laura nodded with tears running down her face. "Then we'll make a deal. You repay your entire debt for the next collection and I'll let him go." She, her goons and Laura's father disappeared to the Mojave as Laura stood there, watching until the evening.

After a long night helping at the Atomic Wrangler, Laura had nearly earned all the caps she would need to get her father. "Just a dozen caps, huh." She shut her eyes against the rising sun while she walked toward her house. She couldn't call it her father's house. Not yet. She noticed a rotten smell coming from a dead cazador. "A headshot? On a cazador? Now I've seen everything." She shrugged her shoulders and continued walking to the house. She opened the door and was greeted by Mr. New Vegas. He was finishing some news and started playing some music. Laura didn't remember leaving the radio open and as she walked to the kitchen she realized she hadn't. The sound wasn't coming from the radio she owned. She took out her revolver and checked the barrel. One bullet. She knew she couldn't kill anyone. Never could. Maybe she could scare the invader into running away and leaving their stuff. Maybe she can get the remaining caps. She tried to look for the source of the music, which appeared to come from upstairs. The bedroom to be exact. Laura gripped the handle of the revolver harder and looked into the room. A boy, about her age, was sleeping on her father's bed. She aimed at his head. She slowly walked into the room. As the song ended, she took a breath.

"Wake up"

"Whaa..?"

"I said: WAKE UP!"

Suddenly, a shot of a revolver.

And then only the sound of the singer broke the silence.

...

John laid there for a good ten seconds, staring at the smoking end of a revolver. To his left, a hole in the pillow with the bullet in it. The shooter, a girl about his age, looked tense, almost terrified. Finally, after a short while of silence, he finally got the courage to talk. With a quiet, shaky voice he started to speak. "Wha-what was that?" The girl didn't answer, but her aim was still on him. She looked a bit shocked. "Are you alright?" "Leave." "What?" "Leave, or I'll shoot you. Don't think I won't." John tried to reason with her. "Wait, wait. Can't we..." The girl shoved the gun onto his nose. It was hot from the previous shot and burned John's nose. "I warned you." John's white eyes looked at the gun in fear.

Laura had the boy on the ropes. He would either push her down and run in to the wasteland or beg her to let him go alive. Either way she would get his stuff and the caps she needed. "I don't think you'll be shooting anybody with that gun before you reload it." What? How'd he know? The boy stood up on the floor, staring at her with his blue eyes, which she swore were freakishly white a second ago. "How did you..." Laura hadn't slept well the night before and hadn't even closed her eyes last night. The lack of sleep finally caught up on her. She started wobbling. "Hey, are you alright?" Laura fainted before she could answer and fell on the floor.

John rushed to grab the girl, but couldn't catch her. He lifted her of the floor onto the bed and tried to remember what he had been taught in his first-aid class. He checked for a pulse, which he was relieved to find; a fever, which there was none and lastly, using his Pip-boy, a radiation poisoning. The reading stayed low. He worried for a slight second. The first human he had met upside and she could be dead already. The girl started to snore. John had a slightly annoyed face. She had only fallen asleep. John turned away from her and noticed the revolver on the floor. He grabbed it and noticed a small engraving on it. To Laura. He wondered if it was the girl's own name, or the name of the person she killed to get it. He shook his head to get the thought of put of his head and set the weapon on the nightstand. He packed his things and went downstairs.

Laura woke up. She had been unconscious for a good fifteen minutes. She quickly rolled over to the nightstand and opened the drawer. She grabbed the Jet which she had gotten from her friend. It had been neutralized to just fill the person using it with energy. No fear of getting addicted to the stuff. She took a breath of it and felt her body filled with energy. She noticed the revolver on the stand. She took it, slipped it into its holster. She ran downstairs. As she got down, she saw the boy in the doorway. He noticed Laura and looked surprised to see her. "You didn't sleep long." "Yeah, I don't want to sleep long, not today. Thanks by the way." "It fine. I didn't want to stress you too much after you passing out like that. Are you going to be okay alone?" Even though she was still weak, a quick boost of anger came over her. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" She pushed the boy out of the door. Out of the corner of her eye she saw two men.

"And you thought she might be worried about her old man. But here she is, throwing men out of her house." Laura stopped pushing, but John still fell on his face. The sunglasses almost cracked as his face hit the dry, warm ground. Laura turned to the men. "What do you want?" She knew the men were Danielle's men. "Danielle wanted to know if you were going to pay today. Remember? Last day to pay or your father stays in the cell. Or maybe he'll be fed to Laura's pets." "Yeah, I'll bring the money to her. I'll be there before nightfall." The men looked at each other and grinned. "Why don't you give the caps to us and we'll tell Danielle to let your old man free, huh?" Laura knew they were lying. They'd keep the caps to themselves and tell Danielle that she wasn't going to pay. And she would lose her father. Then again, they might tell Danielle that anyway. She had to come up with something to make the men think what they would do. Something drastic.

John was dumbfounded. What did these men want with the girl? Caps? Wait. Bottle caps? John stood up and faced the men. The girl turned to him. Her back was against the men so they couldn't see her face as she talked. "Could you lend your gun?" John had a surprised face. He handed his pistol. The men noticed this and tried to get their guns. Before either of them had a chance to even take aim at her, she had shot one man in the foot and the other in the arm. "Tell Danielle that I'll get her money there in time. My father better be in time or she'll suffer the consequences." The men struggled up and leaned to each other as they walked off. Laura watched them for a while before hurrying inside.

Laura went straight into the kitchen. She went through the cupboards and shelves, looking for the missing caps. She started mumbling to herself. "God damnit... Just a dozen caps. I only need a dozen. Ow!" A can fell on her head. The boy came back in. "Oh, yeah, you want this back." Laura had forgot about the gun. She set it on the table and returned to her search. She suddenly heard the sound of small pieces of metal clinging on the wooden table. "Dozen's twelve, right?" Laura quickly turned around and saw a pile of caps on the table. "Ye-yeah..." She went to the table. "Are you sure I can have these? Even after I've put you through?" "Yeah." Laura grabbed the caps and looked back at him. His eyes had a grayish color. "I doubt this'll be the last time"

"Do you think they'll just let you go, after all you've done, once they get their money?"